West End Wandering

When it’s not too hot, I enjoy wandering through my neighbourhood. Aside from the beautiful gardens, there are some pretty neat buildings too. Here are some of my favourites from a recent walk..

Up next are a few shots of my favourite apartment building: Queen Charlotte Apartments, which comes with a City of Vancouver Heritage Plaque that reads..

“The Queen Charlotte is an exquisite example of the Spanish Colonial Revival style. Completed in 1928 by Dominion Construction, the building is symmetrical in its massing, has an elaborate two story main entry, and is a well-known landmark in the West End. Mission-shaped roof parapets, tile roofs cantilevered from the wall surface, recessed balconeys and multi-paned wood-frame windows contribute to the building’s heritage value. Noteworthy interior features include decorative tilework, original bird-cage elevator, metal light fittings, and wooden mouldings, brackets, banisters, doors and floors. The building because a strata corporation in 1981 and consists of 25 units.”

One of the newer buildings to pop up over the past few years is this alleyway or laneway house about a block from my house. I’m impartial to it (I’m not a fan of ultra-modern), but thought I’d share it anyway.

Laneway houses are starting to pop up over the city, partially because of the astronomical housing costs in Vancouver – but also because the trend continues with people wanting to downsize into smaller dwellings.

Interestingly, alleyways in the West End were recently given names so that people moving into laneway houses would have a proper address instead of “I live in the alleyway between X and Y streets.”

The best part of this is that the new names honour prominent local figures. For more information, head over to this article on the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) website.